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Chelmorton
Chelmorton is a wonderful village that is known internationally for its historic and ancient field system that was created by the Celts prior to the Normans and even the Saxons. Chelmorton is also the highest village in Derbyshire and possibly the highest parish in the whole of England, with the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist standing at an impressive 1,209 ft above sea-level. Chelmorton can be found four and a half miles to the south east of Buxton, just over a mile from the A515 Buxton to Ashbourne road, and at the foot of Chelmorton Low which rises to 1,440 ft and dominates the skyline to the north and east.
Bronze Age tumuli on the summit of Chelmorton Low and the nearby Nether Low is evidence that the earliest settlers made their homes on the banks of the stream. The twists and turns of the stream has defined the shape of the village for it ran for about a quarter of a mile and then disappeared underground, and Chelmorton was built on it's banks, the original village street being exactly the same length as the stream.
All of the white limestone dwellings and farms of the area can be found along the main street that follows a gentle slope downhill in a south westerly direction from the parish church to the Flagg Lane crossroads. Beyond the church the road ends abruptly on the slopes of Chelmorton Low and only an ancient trackway, now a footpath, climbs the hillside and joins the Limestone Way beyond Five Wells Farm on route to Taddington.
St.John the Baptist Church stands out from the rest of the buildings, with its darker gritstone chancel, tower and spire, that are all mid 18th century additions to the original limestone church built by the Normans 500 years earlier. Opposite the church stands the Church Inn, a delightful hostelry dating originally from the 1700's and formerly known as the Blacksmiths Arms. The old Smithy of 1746 stood at the rear of the pub and village lore has it that the blacksmith, also the landlord, was his own best customer in those days.
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